"...It was fun to bathe in your bathroom, I enjoyed myself like a pug-dog, and, of course, I did "business" in your "OO". It was not very comfortable and rather cold as the lid was opened but I did not notice it. The water reached my shoulders - not in the "OO" but in the bathroom..." - Citat från ett av Marias brev till sin far (Nikolai). "...I am now sitting near Mother's bed in which she is lying. Olga and Tatiana are reading. Aleksey wanted to sleep in your place today and told Mother that he wanted to play her husband..." - Maria till Nikolai. "Mother is trying to send Anastasia to bed but she is desperately trying to find Shvybzik which is missing. Everybody is calling him but he would not come, merzavets. He was found at last 10 minutes later. We all thought that he was under the sofa. Mother started to bark and Shvybzik answered. he appeared to be sitting under Mother's couch and we all put a great effort in pulling him out of there." - Maria till Nikolai.

Alix, skälla? Det går inte ihop!

"After dinner Mother, Aleksey, me and Vladimir Nickolayevich (Derevenko, a doctor) or Mr. Gilliard usually play the game which we call "The slower you go the sooner your reach your destination". It's fun because you can"eat" the others. We played this game last year in our hospital..."